Hocus Pocus 2
by watercolor
Summary: Hocus Pocus 2 The story continues: The Sanderson sisters return thanks to a long lost relative who raises the sisters souls from the grave in to her unsuspecting aunts.


Hocus Pocus 2 Epilogue 1664. Salem Massachusetts.

The old woman stepped out of the old house and called in to the woods for her grand children.  
"Winifred! Sarah! Mary! Tabitha"  
The eldest, Winifred came up on the porch, her red hair like fire in the evening glow. She was followed by Mary, the next oldest, plump and round, her black hair tied tight over her head; then Mary, blond and petite. The girls were each young, about 13 to 10.

"Where is thy sister, girls?" the old woman croaked. The girls looked evilly to each other but didn't say anything. The old woman looked cross and glared at Winifred. "Winnie." She said sternly. "Where is Tabitha?"

"I do not know, Grand."

"Devil child." The old woman muttered and hobbled off the porch leaving the three other girls to giggle as they watched her go look for the littlest one. From behind them their mother came out of the house. She looked bitterly at the old woman hobbling away and then smiled sweetly to her eldest three girls. "Come little children…I'll take thee away" she said softly, and slowly. "into a land of enchantment"  
"We get to practice more spells today, mother?" Winifred asked happily.

"Yes Winifred," she replied. "Did thee make sure to tie the little one up far from here?" they nodded eagerly.

"Just as well, the longer your grand is away, the longer we can play." She stepped back and let the children run in to the house. She looked back out as the old woman walked away, then turned to join her daughters.

The old woman wandered a bit getting slightly closer to the village that lay beyond. The colony was thriving beyond the forest, but the old woman knew her ways and she knew that she and the girls didn't belong among them. Her daughter had been an evil sport, to court the prince of darkness and birth such cruel children. All but one. Tabitha, the youngest and most sweet spirited wasn't like her sisters nor her mother.

The old woman walked further still until she came across the sack tied upon a branch. The sack didn't struggle, but rather cried softly. The old woman pulled the rope that held it loose and the sack dropped to the ground.

The sack pulled away and a little girl sat curled up.

"Tabitha." The old woman acknowledged.

"Grand!" she called and reached up and hug the little one. She was no more then four years of age.

The old woman pulled the little one away and looked around. She looked back through the forest and saw the smoke coming from the direction of her house.

"I have to protect thee child. Protect thee from them." She pulled the child behind her as she walked closer to the village. She walked up to the steps of the church where she collapsed.

Tabitha looked at her tired grand struggling for breathe on the steps and called for help. From inside a minister came out and saw the old woman. The old woman reached for the man and pulled him down to her.

"Please sir, take my granddaughter and protect her from the witches in the woods."

"Who are ye?" he asked.

"Promise me sir, with my last breathe, protect my granddaughter!"

"I promise thee." And the old woman stopped breathing.

Tabitha looked at the priest. He knew of the old woman there, but had she really been harboring witches in her house. He didn't know. He did know however that he need to inform the family of her passing, but keep the child he found a secret. He took her in to the church and hid her there until he returned.

It was dark then, when he found his way to the cottage. He knocked on the door and was met at the door by the three young girls. Their mother pushed her way past them to the man at the door and glared at him.

"What can I do for thee?" she said bitterly.

"The old lady that lived here, is thy mother?"

"My mother, yes?"

"I am afraid she has passed on."

"Really?" the woman asked.

"She is with the lord." He said and made the sign of the cross, but his sign was met with the woman's laughter.

He looked back over her shoulder where he saw the three little girls balancing on brooms hovering above the caldron in the middle of the room. He gasped and ran from the steps back to the village.

Back in the church he found the little girl the woman had left sitting at the alter.

"Child." He asked almost out of breathe. "Child, tis thy family in the woods"  
the little girl nodded.

"They be witches." The little girl nodded again.

"Ye must stay here, in the village so that we can protect thee, for thee are not like them."

The little girl nodded.

"What is thy name?"

"Tabitha Sanderson." She replied.

"Tabitha." the minister acknowledged. "I shall call services in the morning, if a family will keep thee, will thy promise not to enter the woods again."

"Please sir, do not send me back there." He hugged the small child. He would not tell the town where she came from, but only an old woman had left her for their care.

1690 Salem Massachusetts

"Thackeray!" a young girl called. A boy turned. He smiled at her as she caught up to him. She was no more then 12 to his 14 years, yet he liked her still. She wasn't like the other girls in the village. "A gift for thee." She said smiling and handing him a small basket. The boy smiled and uncovered the basket revealing a handsome leather belt and gloves.

"Elizabeth." The boy exclaimed. "These are much like thy fathers."

"Yes." She replied. "He assisted me in making them for thee."

"Tho made these for me?" the girl nodded.  
"I was not sure of thy size, so I used my fathers hands to help." The boy put the gloves on, but they were larger then his hands.

"I shall grow in to them." He said sweetly.

"The fall festival is tomorrow evening at church." The girl began.

"Wilst tho go with me?" The boy asked suddenly. The girls cheeks flush red and a smile on her face. "I shall go with thee." She replied happily.

"Elizabeth." A woman called then. Elizabeth turned towards the voice and blushed some more.

"Thackeray." The woman said acknowledging the boy yet minding the small infant in her arms. "I see my daughter has given you your gift." The boy nodded. "How is thy sister?"

"Tabitha" a man called from behind her. "Leave the children be." The woman smiled and nodded to the man.

"I look forward to seeing thee tomorrow evening." The woman said and returned to her stroll patting the infant softly as she walked.

"I should be going as well." Elizabeth said softly and followed her mother.

The boy watched as the women left and looked back to the basket he had been given.

Later that evening, he put on the gifts and his mother mended his best shirt.

"Thackeray, it is nice of thee to take Elizabeth to the gathering this evening."

"I like her." He said smiling.

"I know." His mother replied handing him his shirt. "she is a nice girl."

"I am sorry you cannot come this evening mother."

"All is well, Thackeray." She said walking over to a near by bed. "Emily needs me this night."

"I shall bring her back something nice." He said smiling at his little sister. The woman smiled and sent the boy on his way.

He met young Elizabeth at the edge of town. She was looking across the field to the smoke curling in the forest.

Elizabeth was looking at the smoke with curiosity. She had been told often by her mother never to go near the forest and to avoid the cottage there at all cost.

She didn't know why she felt oddly drawn to it. She turned as Thackeray Binx made his way over a tree root. His father waited by the road near by watching the two of them

"We should be on to the church Elizabeth." She smiled and took his arm.  
He took her hand warmly, a spring in his step as he walked up the steps to the church and escorted the girl inside.

Tabitha watched the scene from her front step and smiled, but her smile faded as she noticed the three hooded figures coming from the forest towards the church. She knew who they were, before they removed their hoods, but she said nothing.

"Tho our mother has passed on, sisters, we do not have to, the spells we cast tonight will assure our immortality." Snarled Winifred.

"I think not, sisters." She said suddenly. The three witches turned to the woman who stood behind them. Tabitha was struck by their appearance. They had aged rapidly, looking much older then herself.

"Who art tho to speak to us, wench."

"Go back to thy woods witches if thy wish to live, or shall I call the judge."

Winifred glared at the woman, not knowing she was her sister who disappeared years before.

"Come sisters." She growled. "We shall find sport elsewhere." And they turned to leave. Tabitha watched them until they disappeared in to the woods. She then heard a soft cry coming from her house and returned to the baby she had left in side.

Winifred wasn't so easily gotten rid of however. She watched the woman go back in her home, and then looked again to the church. She watched as Thackeray Binx came out of the back with the little girl she knew was the woman's daughter.

"Come sisters" she whispered. "Time for some really sport." And they retreated back to the cottage in the woods.

Thackeray leaned over and kissed Elizabeth's cheek. She blushed and looked away across the field towards the smoke curing over the trees. It is then she heard it. A soft melody coming from that direction. It called to her, pulled her away from Thackeray, and to the field.

"Elizabeth?" he asked noticing her stare. She shook her head and looked back at him.

"Tis late." She replied.

"I will take thee home." He replied and she turned away from the smoke and trees and walked with him to her house.

Thackeray kissed her cheek again and waited as she entered the house, before returning to the church.

As the moon over head became full, and the night crept on, Elizabeth couldn't sleep. A soft melody kept calling to her. She got out of her bed, and walked to the door. Silently she walked out the door, across the field and in to the woods.

She was not seen from again.

1693 Salem Massachusetts

Tabitha walked up to the old shack in the woods. They village had just hung the Sanderson sisters, and left with their ropes, leaving the house deserted. Tabitha didn't know why she had chosen to return to the house. Perhaps it was to put her ghosts to rest. Emily Binx was dead, as was rumored to be Thackeray, her older brother. She had known them their whole lives, and knew what their parents must have felt, considering her daughter had been spirited away three years before.

She looked up at the shack, barley remembering the life she had spent there.

It was then she saw the cat. The small back cat which sat on the steps. It looked at her and walked up to her sadly mewing.

"What is wrong with thee, kitty?" she asked it.

The cat came towards her and rubbed kindly on her ankle. She smiled at it and walked up the steps and in to the house. The pot of bubbling liquid had cooled and sat stale in the empty room. She looked over to the book which sat quietly on the pedestal Winifred had left it. The cat at her feet mewed and hissed as she opened it. It was then she realized the cat was more then he appeared.

She opened the book and skimmed the pages.

Then when she found what she wanted she pointed at the cat and recited.

"If not an animal before me be From thy former self I reach I grant to thee the words to speak.  
And give to thee the gift of speech."

The cat mewed at her after the spell was cast.

"Forgive me cat." She said with a sigh. "I thought perhaps you may have been my daughter."

"No" the cat spoke. "Not Elizabeth, but Thackeray Binx." Tabitha gasped and looked closer at the cat.

"Thackeray!" she said with surprise. "What happened to thee?"

It was then the cat told her of his morning. How he had awoken to Emily being spirited away as Elizabeth had been years before. The run through the woods, witnessing his sister's death, and be helpless to stop them.

"Thackeray, I am sorry for thee." She said sadly. "That must have been how they took my Elizabeth."

"How did thee know of the spell?" Thackeray asked. "How was thy able to cast a spell on me?"

"Half a witch I be, sweet Thackeray." She confessed. "My mother be the same as the Sanderson Sisters, only I did not turn as evil as they. My mother made a deal with the devil, as did Winifred, and her sisters. Their master be he, and the book his gift to them for their service. I was never a magical one, but this book…though powerful it may be even to be used by me.nothing good can come from it."

"You were able to get me to speak" he replied.

"Yes, but I cannot return you to your form, I cannot bring your sister back from where she has gone, I cannot bring back my Elizabeth, and now a curse laid upon this place. They can come back."

"I will not let them." He said softly snuggling next to her.

"I hope not. We must lock this house. Prevent those from entering."

"And what of me?" he asked.

"Come home with me." She replied. "Though your life, you cannot return to. You can at least have a happy one with me." And so she picked up the cat and left the house and her memory of it behind her. To warn those in the village she told her other children of what happened to Thackeray and that story became legend, and that legend is what was heard in 1993 when the sisters returned. And when Thackeray was freed to return to heaven with is sister's spirit, and be at peace.

But not all stories have endings. 


End file.
